For those of you wondering, Keenspace suffered a major crash recently, and is in the process of recovering. Unfortunately, the auto update and FTP update features are currently unavailable. Hopefully, everything will be up and running again soon, and we'll have new DotH strips up for you.

This post was brought to you by Almond Joy, but not by Mounds, because I always feel like a nut!

yeah... that's probably because I suck. gotta be one of the few artists who actually takes a backslide in later years.

Well, as for Tem's original design, asymmetric armour and all that. Glad you liked it, though I didn't really have much of a clue as to what I was doing at the time. I was just adding on cool stuff to try and make him look like less and less of a Gourry ripoff which, before a lot of the armour add-ons he looked too close to. More serious expression, sure. And one that'll probably find it's way onto his face as we see him later on in the actual strip, but the newer design was meant to reflect a slighltly more compassionate side. I also think that now he looks a bit more like an elf. But then, I don't know what I'm doing. I tried for something but couldn't quite get it. I guess the original was one of those rare points where I drew something really well but am unable to repeat it. If I used the old design instead, chances are all pics that'd follow would be junk compared to that original. At least now with the new design, I can't get too much worse, and can hopefully get a lot better. His newer design is definitely much easier for me to repeat as the strip progresses. Besides, I think his older design, or face anyways, might be more appropriate to apply to a different character further on down the line. I suppose that's actually a big factor, because what I had in mind for another character's face and hair comes way too close in design to what Tem originally looked like. So one had to be changed or the other. And Tem seemed to be the better choice in this instance.

one point though. Take a look at that sword in the original Tem pic. I'm sorry but that thing's size is too ludicrous even for manga. Only Sanosuke can make it work. Now the still large and badarse sword will be much easier to fit into the comic while making Tem look cool using it.